National Emergency Cuts Out the Constitution

Today, President Trump declared a national emergency in order to procure more funding to construct a border wall. In light of this, Sarah Turberville, Director of The Constitution Project at the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), stated:

President Trump is violating our Constitution’s separation of powers by declaring a national emergency in order to circumvent Congress. Congress has already negotiated a bipartisan bill to fund the government, and if the President is unhappy with the amount of funding allocated for the border wall, he can veto the legislation.

No president should create a constitutional workaround because Congress didn’t give them what they want. Congress must vote to end this declaration, craft basic criteria to define what constitutes a national emergency, and place limits on the duration of any future presidential declaration of a national emergency unless it is authorized by Congress.